More spinning, weavi, some knitting

I have been in a spinning mood. I am winding a warp for the floor loom but mostly I've been spinning.

I'll start with the knitting as it is easier. I finished the red fingerless mitts with some leftover yarn. They only needed the thumbs. The thumbs are fat because the yarn is thicker but when I wear them, they are OK.

I also started these flip-top fingerless mittens in India but they've been languishing. I really don't like knitting mittens. Anyway they are done. They match the practice scarf I did on the floor loom. The yarn for the mittens is the weft although I used a little of the warp when I ran out of yarn. You can see that in the top of the left mitten.

My spindle spun thick yarn is plied. I had to hand wind it onto the bobbin for the last few yards as it wouldn't wind on because the bobbin was so full. But I didn't want to make a skein for a few yards. So I persevered and managed to finish it. This is lac and cochineal dyed roving from Handspun by Stefania. I got it some years ago at Rhinebeck.

 I also finished the little Navajo rug. It looks crooked because I let the sides draw in too much so the fell line (where the weaving ends) got tilted. I filled it in with black but as a result, the rug looks crooked. I am pretty pleased with it.

I have also finished spinning an Onyx-to-Crimson gradient from Fiber Optic. But all you see is black on the bobbin so I will post pictures after it is plied.

I also plied and semi-finished a small cotton sample skein on the charkha. One is supposed to boil cotton in an alkaline bath to finish it. I didn't want to do that for a small skein so I will spin some more and finish it all. I just soaked this in a warm water bath. It is a bit thick and thin but seems to be yarn.

I spent some time pondering how to ply this. There is a built-in lazy kate on the Bosworth charkha but the angle from that to the spindle is a bit weird. Maybe I will use that another time when I have more confidence. I ended up winding a 2-ply plying 'ball' on a soft foam core left over from some yarn. I could have put this on my lazy kate but I decided to just let it roll around on the floor. It worked well although there is too much plying twist in the yarn.

That is what I've been up to. Next up is warping the floor loom and plying the gradient. Plus I am going to swatch for a sweater, and am spinning more cotton and spindling the purple cashmere/silk.  I will finish up the travel next week.

Fiber news roundup

Somewhere along the way in moving back, I hurt my right shoulder. I have been icing and resting it (remember RICE? Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevataion) and taking an NSAID. But it didn't get better as quickly as it should have (3 weeks and counting) so I went to the doctor and now am getting physical therapy for it. It is healing very well after even two visits, which means that all my TLC did help in keeping it stable vs. getting worse.

Anyway, the reason for the story is that I've been knitting as I can do that while icing and resting it. Spinning wasn't as comfortable. I finished Nymphalidea from Knitty with a bunch of mods. I should have paid attention to the helpful notes in the finished projects before I started but I don't typically read those and I didn't. Part-way through, I realized two things: one, that it was going to be a very l-o-o-n-g shawl if I kept going and two, it was boring. Then I went and looked at the notes to see what mods people had made.

The comments said that the shawl as written is a tough shape to wear and quite a few people had increased the short rows after about 20 wedges to make it more crescent like. I had already knit 30 wedges which is the size of the finished shawl in the pattern. I had more yarn though, so that was part of my plan. I decided to increase the short row sections and then also finish the top and side with an i-cord to make them one long side - another mod someone had made.

I tried following the short row increases as described in the first set of mods but quickly went my own way. I was winging it here as I couldn't really see what the shawl was going to look like on the needles. But I could visualize it.

I liked the way the wider short-row sections brought out the rainbow in the handspun. It is all done but not blocked as my blocking wires are waiting for customs clearance in NY.

Here is a photo of the finished but unblocked shawl.

The purple long section in the middle is what the rainbow looks like with the original short row sections. You can see the difference between that and the second purple section on the left which is made with wider short row sections.

I started another knitting project. I am tired of shawls and thought about knitting a sweater. I have plans for a couple of handspun sweaters but the yarn is also waiting for the customs clearance. So I went with another shawl but with beads I bought at the wholesale notions market in Shanghai. I had the perfect beads for the yarn.

The yarn is spun from a Miss Babs. It is a BFL in a color called Scarlet Ibis, which is not on her site. I bought it at Rhinebeck a few years ago. I spun it worsted on my Tina. It is a 2-ply and quite even. I am making Dragonfly Wings.

Lastly, in the fiber news roundup, I won a spindle bag in the Tour de Fleece in one of my groups. I had deferred getting it till I was back, which also worked for the person donating the prize. She told me I could get any pattern I wanted so I looked around and found this style. It can be sized to fit a water bottle with the top cut off inside. The water bottle provides protection for the spindle. I thought this was a great idea but I wanted to put my smaller Viewtainer inside. That is the 8" one. Nadine made it for me with padding in the case so it can be used for a larger spindle without the Viewtainer.

For some reason, I can't seem to get it to show up properly in line so here's the link to the photos on flckr. I hope it works. I'll test it after I publish. Else I'll have to work something else out. Edited to add: it works!

And that is all for now. I am busy trying to organize the house. I've been cleaning and decluttering the pantry, the kitchen, my closet and some of the other closets. They all needed to be dusted and cleaned so I am organizing and getting rid of stuff at the same time. it is a slow process and will take the entire winter I think to go through the house but it is a good thing to do.

My very own Rhinebeck aka an ode to my favorite vendors

Last weekend was Rhinebeck and I wasn't there! I felt very sorry for myself because it is one of the weekends when I get to meet friends from far and near and soak up the fumes of fiber.

So I created my own Rhinebeck. I pulled out tools and fibers from people I loved and that I usually meet at Rhinebeck and played with them.

First of all, I wound off the Briar Rose BFL I had spun and plied and finished it. I am very pleased with the results.

I have two skeins. One is big and one is small. The big one is in the lower picture. The top picture is both the skeins next to each other. I have over 900 yds and hope it will be enough for a Featherweight cardi. While I did it, I remembered hanging out with Chris Roosier of Briar Rose.

I didn't actually spin on the Hansen but I did take it out to wind off the skeins since one of the bobbins was on the Hansen. So I touched it and thought of the Hansens.

Then I took out my support spindle and finished spinning a single of the Ferndale Fibers Pot O' Gold roving. I moved on to the second single on my new-to-me Enid Ashcroft Tibetan.

And I used my Jennie the Potter spider bowl. I usually help Jennie out on Saturday morning so I thought of the fun times that I've had over the years at her booth.

I couldn't think of anything to do to celebrate my other friends - Sheila Ernst and Lisa Souza so I just thought of them.

And remember this?

The Corgi Hill Farm fiber that I've been plying for ages? Well, I pulled it out and determined to ply for at least 30 mins every day. This is the state of it at the end of today's session. It is a very slow process as the Swan spins long but slow due to the weight of the cop on it. But I'm getting there. There is a core of other fiber inside that plying ball so I don't think I have that much to go. But I won't know till I get there. In the process, I worked with two more favorite vendors - Corgi Hill Farm and the Jenkins' Turkish spindles. Neither are Rhinebeck vendors but so what? They are chock full of fiber fumes.

I didn't do anything with Fiber Optic either. I usually visit her booth and Into the Whirled and Handspun by Stefania but I don't know them well enough to call them friends. Given I just finished knitting with fiber from both Fiber Optic and Into the Whirled and I think I am going to spin some roving from Stefania, I have been and will be thinking a lot about them.

And that is the end of my little Rhinebeck. A big hug to everyone who was there. I hope you had a great time. I heard the weather was fabulous. Here's to next year!

Plying from a turtle

I spun quite a bit of the gradient that I have been working on but I haven't found a good way to wind off the cop yet so I have put it away and started working with my new Turkish spindles. Wanda Jenkins always sends some lovely fiber with each spindle and even spins a leader so you are ready to go when you get the spindle. I love that little touch.

I started with the Delight, which is the smaller of the two I bought. The fiber sample here was from Abstract Fibers, in the colorway Maleficent. The fiber is Organic Polwarth and silk and it was just dreamy to spin. It drafted beautifully and the singles came out fabulously smooth. I tried to spin it a little thicker than I am spinning the gradient but it was a little thick and thin. Since these are just samples, you get instant gratification.

I am posting a flash picture because it shows the colors better.

I let it rest overnight as I had trouble with the plying the last time I tried it (on the Kuchulu). While I was thinking, I realized that a plying ball is the perfect answer to the yarn barf that results from the inside-outside plying from the turtle.

In the meantime, I picked up the Swan and spun a little on it. This came with a fiber sample from NewHueHandspuns BamHuey in the colorway High Tide. The color is very pretty and the previous sample of this fiber, that I got with the Kuchulu, spun up very easily. This sample though is a little tough to draft. Also, since I was spinning on a much larger spindle, I went much thicker. This time, I got a fairly even draft.

This morning, I created my plying ball. Again, this is a little bit of fiber so all this takes very little time.
I started with my usual styrofoam core wrapped in a bit of handspun.

I slowly wound the single from both the inside and the outside of the turtle together on the ball. You have to maintain tension on the singles as you do this and make sure both are feeding evenly. I did break a single, but I discovered it a few inches past the break and I was able to join it and continue without too much effort.
Here it is midway through the process

The advantage of winding it onto a plying ball is that you can keep the turtle under control. If it isn't feeding properly, you can set the ball down without worrying about the fiber untwisting. This is what happened to me when I was plying directly from the turtle. The turtle would hang and start untwisting. Also, you can control the turtle by holding it in the palm of one hand while you hold the ball in the other hand. The fingers of the turtle hand feed the fibers under tension to be wound onto the ball.

I got a bit of yarn barf at the end but I was able to find the end and once it was under tension, I could untangle it. I had to enlist the use of another hand (my husband's) to hold the end while I untangled it. But it was less than a yard long so I could have used my toe or some other object to hold it in place. Plying ball is all completed here

Now I can ply on any spindle or even a wheel. Since the two singles are evenly wound on the ball can go anywhere without worrying about them. I will create another plying ball from the Swan's current turtle and then ply them both one after the other.

I am enjoying the slightly thicker singles I am spinning on the Swan. Once I see how thick the finished yarn is, I may do this as my next project. I have some lovely Romney from Into the Whirled which I got at Rhinebeck in 2011.

It is the one on the right. I think a DK/sport weight yarn in this color would make me a lovely headband and fingerless mitts. I am walking outside quite a bit here and my ears get cold. I hate hats so a headband is perfect. Also, I lost one of my lovely ski gloves yesterday. That leaves me with just one pair of fingerless mitts for warmth and I think a thicker pair would be better. The ones I have are stranded sock weight yarn.

So let's see how the thicker single ends up and I can plan spinning the Romney based on that.

Green yarn

Literally, of course. Here is the merino that survived the tangle around the axle...

That is the obligatory shot with the quarter to show the yarn thickness.

I have about 160 yards. I am glad to be done with this. I did not enjoy the spinning process.

First attempt at spinning cotton

 Since I won a supported trindle at the Tour de Fleece this year, I decided to learn to spin with it using cotton that I had acquired in various ways. It was all combed cotton top.

I started with the red skulls that I had won with the trindle. It was a lot of fun spinning with that.  In fact I spun with red skulls and a spider bowl on Halloween!

I initially spun only around 15-20 mins a day as it was tough getting the spindle to spin and draft at the same time. I did a lot of 'park and draft' type spinning. I spun the trindle to build up twist and then I would draft a bit and then spin it again.

Joining was tough in the beginning. I would end up throwing out bits of fiber when I joined as I just wasn't getting it all caught up right. That worked itself out as I got more proficient.

Over time, it got easier and I could draft and spin the trindle at the same time. I found the red skulls a little light as the cotton cop built up on the shaft.

 At Rhinebeck, I got some heavier disco balls, which helped a lot. The trindle spun slower but longer and that helped build up twist so I could draft out while it was spinning. I also found that sometimes, it was easier to just spin on my thigh rather than in the bowl. It depends on what you are wearing. It worked well on jeans but not so well on sweatpants.

 As the cops got built, I wound them off onto weaving bobbins. I used a shoe-box kate because it was easier than some of the other things I had around.

I ended up with 3 weaving bobbins worth of singles.

 The three weaving bobbins fit nicely on my new Will Taylor kate and I plied from the largest and one of the others first. After the smaller of the two ran out, I started the third. One lesson I learned was not to leave the cotton dangling while plying. I put a rubber band around the weaving bobbins so I wouldn't lose any twist. But I forgot about the single hanging there.

When I got back to plying later, I had to toss about 6-8" worth of singles before I had a strong single with enough twist in it. I made a bracelet with the last bit after the second bobbin ran out and finished plying as usual. I added a good bit of plying twist and there was a lot of twist in the singles.

 There is a decent amount of yarn from all this. It is essentially 'free' yarn as I paid for it as part of a class or a retreat. I thought I would just have a sample skein but I think there is enough to make something with it.

As you can see, the skein is skewing to the left, to the plying side, to show how much plying twist I put in. This is pre-finishing.

Finishing cotton seems to be a matter of many different opinions. The Intentional Spinner says that it should be finished similar to protein fibers. Spin Control says it should be boiled for 30 mins with washing soda. Stephanie Gaustad also says boil with washing soda in her Spinning Cotton video. I found boiling with baking soda and boiling with detergent as other recommendations on the web. Since I didn't have washing soda and I wasn't going to buy some for this skein, I just boiled it for 30 minutes without any additions.

I then cooled it immediately with cold water, squeezed out the water, snapped it between my hands and also thwacked it for good measure before hanging up to dry. The skein is straight now. Let's see how it feels when it is dry.

Overall, a successful experiment. I am very comfortable with the spindling technique, I liked spinning the cotton and while this yarn is a bit thick-and-thin, I definitely got more even at the end. So I can produce a nice yarn if I do this again.

I am now going to start some supported spindle projects with wool and see how that differs from cotton.

Finally, success without a twist

I started the cowl again. Yes, it had a twist. No, I cannot figure out what happened. But I don't care any more. I went back to some well-loved dpns. I was using a new set to start the other because they happened to be handy and I didn't like them with this yarn.

 There it is. Half done. I started on the size 4 ebony dpns above and just switched to the size 3 ones below. They are rosewood. Both have lovely points for lace. Not too sharp and not too blunt and they feel like heaven in my hands.

 A close up of the gorgeous yarn with the beads. The beads sparkle nicely in the variegated yarn.

 I also make some faux-rolags to play with on the wheel. This is Spinners Hill merino from last year's Rhinebeck. I made them following this method, which I have wanted to try for a while.

And a close-up. I've done half the merino for one single. I think I want a skinnier thing to roll it on. I used the roll from contact paper as I thought my rolling pin was too thick. Next time I will use my skinny rolling pin from India.

Rhinebeck 2012

I am still in a daze after a glorious weekend at Rhinebeck. I know that too much of a good thing diminishes its value, but I could live a life full of Rhinebeck weekends.

It started early for me. I took a breed study class from Beth Smith on Friday. She is a font of knowledge and extremely organized. The amount of information she managed to impart in 6 hours was phenomenal. I don't have pics of the class but I have results.

 We got samples of 12 different fibers. We flicked the fine wools, combed the long wools and carded the down breeds (or something like that). We then spun each one into samples that we put in folders. The folders were categorized by color. Beth gave us index cards for each folder with the name of the breed on it.

It all makes me look incredibly organized, doesn't it? I spun and plied most of my samples. There were a few that are still singles. Some were ply-back samples but many of them were actual 2 plies. I got very good at Andean plying!

 

Since we didn't have time to play with all the fiber we received, Beth provided bags and labels so we could put the rest of the sample aside and play at home. Here is my set of 12 breed samples. I spun all but two. I had to skip the two just to keep up with Beth's pace. For the first time in a long time, I felt brain dead at the end of the class.

I was one of the first 250 to enroll in class so I got a goodie bag. 

 

It had goodies in it.

 

A ball of sequined acrylic yarn from Lion Brand along with a tape measure. Another tape measure from Webs. One cannot have too many tape measures. A small sample of fiber and some coupons. I didn't use the coupons as I forgot the bag at home on Saturday and Sunday.

It matches my Rhinebeck bag from last year, which is a great size and very, very useful. I use it all the time to haul things around.

 

It poured on Friday. In the middle of class, we had to go and move our cars to avoid having them flood. As a result, my shoes, socks and pant hems were all wet for most of the afternoon. But it was better than having water get into the car's innards.

I went early on Saturday to help out at Jennie the Potter and Briar Rose's booths. It was hard work as both booths were mobbed as soon as the festival opened. It is a good thing that I'm an extrovert, isn't it?

I bought this lovely little bowl from Jennie. 

No, those are not cracks. Don't even think that!

 

It fits my supported trindle perfectly! And speaking of supported trindles, guess what I bought for mine?

Pretty disco ball jewelry! These are heavier arms that the red skulls above.

I also wandered over to the Fiber Optic booth and bought some gradients.

 This is Ebony-Gold-Crimson.

And this one is really hard to see but it is called Midnight and has some gorgeous blackish shades.

That was pretty much all I did on Saturday. I wandered around some with a visiting friend, but was tuckered out by 3 pm and left to go home and rest.

On Sunday, I had volunteered to help out with the workshops. I got there early to check people in and show them their class rooms. This is fun because I know some of the other volunteers but I always get to meet a few new ones. I also saw some familiar faces in the students.

Another friend was visiting Rhinebeck for the first time on Sunday so I spent the day with her. And in the process, a bunch of stuff came home with me.

 I  bought these carbon fiber double pointed needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst.

 Handspun by Stefania is one of my favorite vendors. I got two 8 oz bumps of roving from her. The one above is dyed with Indigo and Iron. The one below is Lac and Cochineal. Her fiber spins like a dream!

 Another favorite is Lisa Souza. This was my first time seeing her fiber in person. I got two 4 oz bumps from her. The one on the left is baby alpaca/silk. The one on the right is just marked wool but I think it is BFL. I fell in love with the colors.

 Lastly, Chris of Briar Rose Fibers gave me these two bumps of Cormo top as a reward for keeping her Sea Pearl yarn presentable all day Saturday. More color!

I also visited the Hansencrafts booth and came away with two cool pins.

I also bought some hand cream from Maggie's Farm, lotion bars from Heal my Hands, and soap from Bittersweet Ridge. I love hand-crafted soap and cream and they do wonders for my skin. So I stock up at Rhinebeck. I also talked (I hope) Maggie into making lip balm in tubes. My favorite lip balm vendor was missing this year and there was no one else making balm in tubes.

And now all I have are fabulous memories and gorgeous fiber. As I spin and knit these, I will remember the place and time that I bought them and the friends who were there with me. After all, it is all about the memories and the good times, isn't it?